Mountains—the highest points on the planet—provide vital support for some of the most spectacular landscapes and diverse ecosystems on Earth. Covering a quarter of Earth’s land surface, mountain regions sustain a breadth of species and provide local communities with the essential goods and services they depend on for survival.

After an ongoing project tracking elusive snow leopards in a remote area of northeastern Nepal, a government-led project team that included WWF succeeded in fitting a satellite-GPS collar on one of nature’s most elusive big cats on November 25.

Government representatives from the 12 Asian countries where snow leopards roam endorsed an ambitious new plan at the meeting today—a plan to protect and conserve snow leopards and their high mountain range habitat.

For the endangered animals of our planet—like the rare and regal snow leopard—climate change means much more than hotter days and intensified storms. These creatures face the prospect of a significant transformation of the habitats that sustain them.

Snow leopards scale the great, steep slopes of mountains in Central Asia with ease, blending into the landscape. But these endangered cats face many threats including habitat loss, reduced prey and retaliatory killings.